Monday, October 16, 2017

Issue Encountered with the State of Utah Purchasing Department

Ran in to an issue with the State of Utah purchasing department that needs to be shared to help prevent this happening in the future (and may be useful to other public sector purchasing agents).

I was contacted to provide a bid for the State of Utah specific to a Microsoft Dynamics RMS lapsed maintenance agreement. Microsoft's policy is that only the Partner of Record can provide this type of information so I provided the State of Utah with a Microsoft Dynamics RMS Change of partner form so I would be their Partner of Record and I could provide pricing to renew the RMS maintenance.

The contact at the State of Utah replied that they would not provide this information and are soliciting bids/quotes. If I was unwilling to provide a bid/quote based on this information, then I would be considered a "no bid".

Obviously I can't provide a bid/quote without the Change of Partner form so the State of Utah was creating a situation where no one could bid except their current Dynamics RMS Partner.

This really doesn't make any sense - why waste a vendors time? Much easier to just note that this is a sole source opportunity or that the State of Utah wishes to renew the Microsoft Dynamics RMS maintenance agreement with their current Dynamics RMS Partner.

I'm hoping that there is nothing fishy going on with the bid processes with the State of Utah. Hopefully they just didn't understand how Microsoft assigns a Partner of Record who is the only entity allowed to access maintenance renewal costs.

Because this involves tax payer money, I'm also posting this in case other vendors have had similar experiences that should be shared as well as for media and government watch group use.

Contact me at 208-340-5632 or kevinantosh@gmail.com with any questions.

2 comments:

  1. We had the same exact problem from the following person at the State of Utah and are checking with gov't watch groups for possible violations: Dawn Holt State of Utah Department of Technology Services

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    1. Yup - that is the person that I was referencing. Sounds like this is a bigger issue - please contact me as I've saved all communication and can send on to you.

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